Legislation

Date: 6 June, 1995

In an historic decision on 6 June 1995 the Constitutional Court abolished the death penalty. The court ruled that capital punishment as provided for under the Criminal Procedure Act was inconsistent with the country's 1994 constitution. The ruling did not apply, however, to the crime of treason in wartime. The Court ordered that, with immediate effect, "the State and all its organs are forbidden to execute any person already sentenced to death under any provisions thus declared to be invalid". The ruling followed the Constitutional Court's hearing on the death penalty that took place in February 1995. Until the use of the death penalty was suspended in February 1990, South Africa had one of the highest rates of judicial executions in the world.

Poll in 1995:

Poll by Research Surveys Group, South Africa's largest consumer research company, interviewed thousands of people from metropolitan areas.

Results:

80% of whites interviewed felt the death penalty should be retained, 12% wanted it abolished and 8% abstained;

49% of blacks interviewed felt the death penalty should be retained, 34% wanted it abolished and 17% abstained.

Recently the 'death penalty' debate has re-surfaced in South Africa, due to an unacceptable increase in crime. African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma said in March 2008 that if enough people want the death penalty returned, South Africa should hold a referendum on the matter.

Links:

SA History Online feature The Constitutional Court

Moyiga Nduru. DEATH PENALTY: Calls for the Return of Capital Punishment in South Africa.

Martin Schönteich (2002). DOES CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DETER? Published in African Security Review Vol 11 No 2. http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/ASR/11No2/Schonteich.html

South Africa: Death Penalty - Let Country Vote, Business Day (Johannesburg), 7 March 2008, Posted to the web 7 March 2008.

Sources:

1. Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.

amnesty.org. http://www.amnesty.org/fr/library/asset/ACT53/002/1995/en/dom-ACT530021995en.html